Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant and on the money
Review: Arianna Huffington articulates the basic thoughts that many of us already knew we had; the rich get much richer at the expense of people that have to go to work every day.The funny thing is this - I have worked many years for big companies and as I read the book, it dawned on me that she has only barely scratched the surface. Fact is, I don't think she has actually seen some of the folks she writes about in action. I have lived through quite a few of these folks as well as future "lion's of business" in the making. The only criticism I have about this book is that it presents an excellent post mortem on the greed and avarice that permeates boardrooms but it doesn't really outline how common people can effect change in our society and in companies to prevent this kind of malfeasance. Further, while touching upon government duplicity, I would have liked to have seen more depth given to the subject of how our government facilitated and even created circumstances for this to happen. Overall, this is an excellent book that should be part of the core curriculum of any business ethics class. Unfortunately, my fear is that history will repeat itself and many future up and coming business elite will read this only after they are booted from the boardroom, at the expense of working people with families that have to clean up their mess. As always Arianna Huffington approaches the most malignant in our society with wit, humor and an irreverence that makes the book worth reading even if you don't agree with her. I agree with her completely.
Rating:
Summary: No-nonsense truth from a no-nonsense woman
Review: Arianna Huffington is a rare treasure...a political pundit who states the truth without sugar coating it. She is brilliant,insightful, and she has a great sense of humor. Her writing adds some exciting life and laughter to very serious issues.
This book is a must read for capitalist pigs and those that hate them.
Rating: 
Summary: An empty populist polemic
Review: Arianna Huffington proves in this book that anyone can write a book today if they are outrageous enough in their attack, regardless whether they have anything new to say. Her book is a compendium of facts and figures well-known to anyone who regularly reads Business Week, Fortune, and other business press --- sadly, her work lacks even one original piece of research or one new fact that she herself dug up. This is clearly a book written entirely from Lexis, Nexis, and Google searches. Aside from the lack of original research, Ms. Huffington's style grates on one's nerves. Her writing attempts to be overly cute, but comes across with all the clever cynicism of a high school sophomore. She excells at moronic, cliched name-calling (beginning with the title itself), as if her sticks and stones will somehow solve the much deeper problems in corporate governance and auditing about which she clearly knows little except the most superficial of information. Her so-called quizzes embedded throughout the book were equally immature. Far better that she should leave her pitiful attempts at humor of that sort to people like Al Franken, Molly Ivins, Dennis Miller, or Michael Moore who actually are funny and have the intellectual breadth and cultural repertoire to actually pull off real satire. I suffered my way through the entire book mostly out of disbelief that a woman whom the press consistently dubs as intelligent could write such a shallow, childish, ineffectual work about a truly serious set of problems in our modern capitalist system. Having read this book, I see that her depth of knowledge and her persistent literary grandstanding through empty name-calling made her at least as good a candidate for governor in California as Arnold. They make the perfect pair for a state in which shallow superficiality reigns supreme. This book is the perfect purchase for readers with high school educations who have never seen a copy of Business Week or read the business section of the New York Times. For everyone else, I suggest you spend your money elsewhere (spend it on a serious book like The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, or Paul Krugman'sThe Great Unraveling).
Rating:
Summary: Maybe Ms. Huffington should direct her anger elsewhere
Review: Arianna Huffington, the failed gubernatorial candidate in the 2003 California recall campaign, attempts to write a subject to which she has very little actual experience. First, Ms. Huffington's premise is that most corporate executives are greedy and therefore laws need to be enacted to hamstring our managers who wish to exercise the best interest of their shareholders. She does not emphasize how any of her so-called "reforms" will actually benefit long-term shareholders who wish for chief executives to take risks to earn a decent return on their investment. Further, Ms. Huffington fails to emphasize how there are already laws on the books to punish chief executives who have abused the trust positions to which they have been appointed. It is the executive branch's duty to punish those who engange in fraud, something the Bush Administration is already doing. However, we would not hear about that in Ms. Huffington's book, because that would hurt her premise, which is that Bush is in on the fraud too. Most of the research contained in Ms. Huffington's book is related to stories she has read about, not people or companies she has actually chosen to research on her own. As such, practically anyone who has a modicum of research experience could write a similar book of her type -- without having any documentary evidence to prove the assertions made therein. One thing that is most lacking in Ms. Huffington's book is the notion that honest chief executives are able to work on behalf of their shareholders and employees. There is a sense that the position of chief executive necessarily entails a sense of greed that will infect the entire operations of the company. In a sense, by stating that all chief executives are guilty, Ms. Huffington is too leniant towards those truly guilty of malefensense. In truth, the system does work: witness the convictions the U.S. Department of Justice has been able to secure on crooked corporate executives. But the capitalistic system itself--a markedly effecient system where sharehoulders can exercise their disapproval of managers at any time--will carry on despite Ms. Huffington's heckling. One could hope the same could be said about our so-called "great" governmental institutions such as Social Security, the public schools, and the post office.
Rating:
Summary: Maybe Ms. Huffington should direct her anger elsewhere
Review: Arianna Huffington, the failed gubernatorial candidate in the 2003 California recall campaign, attempts to write a subject to which she has very little actual experience. First, Ms. Huffington's premise is that most corporate executives are greedy and therefore laws need to be enacted to hamstring our managers who wish to exercise the best interest of their shareholders. She does not emphasize how any of her so-called "reforms" will actually benefit long-term shareholders who wish for chief executives to take risks to earn a decent return on their investment. Further, Ms. Huffington fails to emphasize how there are already laws on the books to punish chief executives who have abused the trust positions to which they have been appointed. It is the executive branch's duty to punish those who engange in fraud, something the Bush Administration is already doing. However, we would not hear about that in Ms. Huffington's book, because that would hurt her premise, which is that Bush is in on the fraud too. Most of the research contained in Ms. Huffington's book is related to stories she has read about, not people or companies she has actually chosen to research on her own. As such, practically anyone who has a modicum of research experience could write a similar book of her type -- without having any documentary evidence to prove the assertions made therein. One thing that is most lacking in Ms. Huffington's book is the notion that honest chief executives are able to work on behalf of their shareholders and employees. There is a sense that the position of chief executive necessarily entails a sense of greed that will infect the entire operations of the company. In a sense, by stating that all chief executives are guilty, Ms. Huffington is too leniant towards those truly guilty of malefensense. In truth, the system does work: witness the convictions the U.S. Department of Justice has been able to secure on crooked corporate executives. But the capitalistic system itself--a markedly effecient system where sharehoulders can exercise their disapproval of managers at any time--will carry on despite Ms. Huffington's heckling. One could hope the same could be said about our so-called "great" governmental institutions such as Social Security, the public schools, and the post office.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent read that obviously scares the pigs!
Review: Don't let the few negative reviews keep you from this book because the lowest rated reviews for Pigs are coming some seeming real partisan lowlifes. Let's attack her accent, lie about her payment of taxes, lie about her divorce settlement, etc. Don't refute what she's saying, make fun of her. I guess it's more difficult for those with an 8th grade reading capacity to understand these complex issues made easy by Ms. Huffington. For you, there's always the simple thoughts of ann coulter. This book names names and facts. How one reviewer could bag on her for attacking "the successful" is beyond me. It is not hard work that drives someone to take out millions in loans from their company without having to pay them back. it's thievery. Buy this book and enjoy a witty and sharp author who has an economics masters from cambridge, was a part of several think tanks, authored 10 other books, and lays waste to morons like arnold Kindergarten Cop in debates. Beware! you will get mad and want to throw your copy against the wall at the redoubtable corporate greed and excess that we the taxpayer will often bear the burden of. You might want to try the paperback.
Rating: 
Summary: Scathing Report on Corporate Greed-Well Done!
Review: Huffington starts strong and does not lose momentum in this scathing report of corporate irresponsibility. She definitely did her research for this book, she got down to the nitty-gritty details of the crimes committed by Lay, Kozlowski, and their gang of corrupt CEOs. Huffington's style is very witty, very acerbic, and always makes you think. The little sidebars were very funny: Match the CEO to his yacht, quizzes on the corrupt CEOs, etc. Very funny yet very disturbing--it is unbelievable to read about the extent of these scandals and crimes. Thank you Ms. Huffington for telling everyone what happened!
Rating:
Summary: Information: good; Presentation: average
Review: Huffington's book collects a laundy list of corporate-executive outrages conveniently in one location... but that's all it does.
Most of the compensation and under-the-table dealings are presented clearly and backed up with solid evidence, but it's all in the form of anecdotes. The information is packaged in 2- to 3-page mini-essays (one per corporate pig), and each paragraph follows the same pattern: a couple sentences of exposition and always a sarcastic bon mot to wrap it up.
Basically, Huffington's writing is just a transcription of spoken interview-style comments: short, pithy, and capped with a memorable sound bite. This works well on radio and TV, but it makes written prose seem choppy and unfocused.
This does not detract from the validity of her accounts, mind you; there's no doubt that CEOs are basically running the economy for their own benefit at the expense of the rest of us. The favors they do themselves and each other are fully documented here and should galvanize the working class to action.
Unfortunately, Huffington makes little effort to weave any kind of coherent theme or overarching pattern into these anecdotes. They stand alone as specific complaints, and the final section on "what action is needed" reflects this lack of deeper analysis. The call to action seems limp, consisting of little more than a generic "get involved" message and a list of grassroots-action groups you can join. These are worthy causes, beyond doubt-but Huffington doesn't really have anything new to say about economic abuses that are (by now) common knowledge.
Rating:
Summary: If The Good Lord Thought Money was Important,
Review: I can remember Bret Maverick observing that "My old pappy always said that 'if the Good Lord thought money was important, He would a given it to a whole better class of people.'" Well, the class of people that Arianna talks about in her book is not very good; as a matter of fact, by calling them porkers, she gives them too much credit. I believe a pig will actually stop short of eating itself to death. These jaspers evidently cannot. So maybe pigs ought to feel offended by the comparison. This book made me feel a whole lot better about being poor. I now feel smugly superior to Kenny Boy Ley, Bernie Ebbers, Dennis Kozlowski, Jeff Skilling, Gary Winnick, John Rigas and the rest of the troughateers that have helped harm our country (why aren't your carcasses all rotting in prison?). I can envision Arianna, a beautiful dance hall girl, on the arm of Bret Maverick, listening to his stories attentively then transforming into a modern woman and writing down these tales. Only they are stories from today. But they bespeak a greed that is older than Bret Maverick, even Bret's old pappy. They are stories about the crooked dealers and card sharks that rig the game so as to take the money of honest citizens and cowboys who lack the sophistication to spot their cons. Today the crooked dealer is a research analyst like Jack Grubman who tells the little guy, "yeah the game is honest and you ought buy as many chips as you can." Or it is accounting firms like Arthur Anderson who restate earnings the way a slick cheat shuffles a deck of cards, deftly inserting an ace. Often the stakes are alot more than a cowboy's pay. Often they are the pensions and life savings of honest folk who helped build this country. Always the card cheats were abetted by the sheriff, the mayor and the good people of the community who did nothing. And the cowboy's only recourse was to go for his gun. If he was lucky, he was thrown out of the saloon by the cheats minions; if he wasn't so lucky, he took a slug from a Colt and lay dead in a pool of his own blood. What we need is a good sheriff, and somebody to extoll his virtue and to make us mad at the troughateers. Arianna introduces a good sheriff, Eliot Spitzer (Guys named Eliot are good at this sort of thing. Eliot Ness did it to Al Capone but that was on another early 1960's ABC series, and I don't want to mix my metaphors). Anyway, Spitzer can't be bought, and "so far" he can't be shot. He is dong a pretty good job. He has got the card cheat Grubman, and we, the citizens, are aware the casino/saloon is crooked, or at least some of its dealers are crooked. Meanwhile, the Anderson gang has been busted up, and the troughateers run out of town (I still wish they were all in jail). But Arianna warns, and we know, that there are alot more troughateers out there. Theirs is a venality too oft replicated in the gene pool to be removed. As long as we have people, and things are run by people, it will exist. Next week there will be another episode of Maverick and perhaps Arianna or some other dance hall girl will absorb the wisdom of Bret's (or Bart's, I liked Jack Kelly too) next little soliloquy on the nature of human weakness. They will write it down, and we will be closer by an asymptote to curing this human condition.
Rating:
Summary: Waking up the American people
Review: I had heard of this book, and 'on a lark' bought it. Reading this was a real educational event. EVERY AMERICAN should read this. Mrs. Huffington, gives names of CEO's that have been convicted, ones investigated, outlines what they did to amass their fortunes. Mrs. Huffington (who is a Rhodes Scholar), explains corrupt methods, used by many of these CEO's, in a such plain terms, anyone should be able to understand. How did you lose your 401K, you pension, why did your job go overseas? Let me quote from the excellent book: [quote]
"Since the beginning of the new century [2000], over 570 public companies--including most famously Enron, Global Crossing, Adelphia, WorldCom and Kmart--have declared bankruptcy."
"Nearly $9 trillion in market value has been lost on Wall Street. But while the average American has suffered staggering losses in 401(k) and pension value, and many have struggled to stay afloat, the average CEO has added millions to his personal wealth. In corporate America, apparently, nothing succeeds like utter failure."
"At Enron, after tens of billions of dollars vanished--including over $1 billion in employees' pension funds---and over 4,000 employees had been laid off, Enron's "Kenny Boy" Lay strolled out the door with over $100 million."
" In his last three years at Tyco, Dennis Kozolwski received $466.7 million in salary, bonuses, and perks. He did such a bang-up job that since the summer of 2001, Tyco has closed or consolidated 300 plants and laid off 11,000 workers."
"When Bernie Ebbers resigned from WorldCom--claiming he didn't understand that WorldCom was defrauding investors of $7 billion--and received over $44 million in pay; His severance package promised him $1.5 million a year for the rest of his life, and the use of the WorldCom jet for 30 hours a year. And medical benefits. And life insurance. And a desktop computer."
Source-"Pigs At The Trough"-Arianna Huffington;copyright-2003; ISBN 1-4000-4771-4;-page-38-9 Do you wonder why the price of prescription drugs remain high? [quote]
"The pharmaceutical industry spent a whopping $177 million on lobbying in just the last two years. And of their 623 registered lobbyists, more than half are former members of Congress or former government employees. Which is nice, because if you're a young politician selling off your vote and your integrity, it's easier if there's a seasoned veteran involved who was once in your shoes."
"Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was formerly CEO of drug giant G.D. Searle, and White House Budget Director Mitch Daniels was a senior vice president at Eli Lilly."
Source-"Pigs At The Trough"-Arianna Huffington;copyright-2003; ISBN 1-4000-4771-4;Page-139 Everyone should read this book.
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